This invention relates to a loader vehicle having a digging scooping bucket equipped with a push plate ejector for dumping without tipping the bucket downward.
For work in places with limited overhead clearance as in mines and tunnels it is advantageous to provide the loader bucket with a push plate ejector so that the bucket does not have to be raised to a high level for dumping. There is often insufficient overhead clearance for raising a loader bucket high enough to tip the bucket forward for dumping by gravity into a mine car or truck or onto a conveyor belt or the like.
Push plate ejector buckets heretofor proposed for this purpose have had various objectionable features such as protuberances within the bucket to house hydraulic cylinders, rack and pinion mechanisms which are difficult to shield from the material in the bucket, and obstructions projecting from the front side of the ejector plate which may protrude beyond the lip of the bucket and prevent dumping against a wall or other object.
Objects of the invention are, therefore, to provide an improved ejector bucket, to provide an ejector bucket without protuberances therein containing hydraulic cylinders or other actuating mechanisms, to provide a bucket which does not contain actuating mechanisms that may be impaired by the material in the bucket, to provide a push plate which does not have parts that may project beyond the lip of the bucket, and to provide a bucket having a push plate ejector with an actuating cylinder which swings down between the wheels of the vehicle when the bucket is raised for dumping.